First Day From Nest

Great job with a tough shot. You must have earned the trust of this parent to get so close without seeing a rear view through the viewfinder. Good timing on the composition -- the loonlet stands out nicely against the white of the parent's chest. Nice color and exposure, too. I am wondering how it would have looked with the lens tilted up just slightly, but I also appreciate that you were probably trying to avoid something in the background or having the waterline at center photo.

I welcome your critique of this image of loon and chick. Does this

particular crop work? Thank you. -=D=-

Nice photo. As for the cropping/framing, IMO the subject needs to be farther to the right in the frame, so it can look (swim) into the frame.

I agree with the previous two posts, placing the loons right and down a little would have worked better for me. Was there something you were trying to not include, or were you going for a different look/feel for this image?

I too would have placed the loons in the lower right of the image. I like the look of the grasses in the upper portion of the image and would like to see more of them...maybe giving a little more sense of habitat or place.

This is a great shot. The chick against the white chest of the mother is outstanding. not sure why you cropped the top so close, but assume there is a reason (cause you wanted to, right?). I took the liberty of looking at some of your other stuff and you have some wonderful scenics. Thanks for posting.

These birds are darned tough to photograph. You are to be commended for this one.

 

My only quibbles are the black border which overwhelms the picture and a an apparent lack of sharpness in the chick.

I like the way you caught the chick against the mother. The chick seems a little fuzzy but that could be because it IS a little fuzzy.

 

The cropping seems cramped to me. I might try moving the mother and chick to the right more. This would give them some room to swim into.

 

I'm also not sure that the black mat is appropriate here. I can't immediately decide what would be better but the black seems to confine the mother and chick while a lighter color may open the image up somewhat.

I appreciate your insighful comments above. They represent just the kind of feedback I was looking for. I may very well take you up on several of your ideas. To answer some of your questions though here is how I arrived at the final presentation.

 

I like the way the texture of the water behind them give a sense of moving across the image and a little toward and to the left of the viewer. Placing them in the lower right may have lost some of the sense of direction. I agree that the crop above them is a little tight, but with all due respect, I felt the grasses in the background distracted from the primary point of focus. The grasses were somewhat overbright in contrast to the dark blue water and bird colorations. The grasses also had some unwanted highlights in them that added more distractions.

The black border (which is also the size of the crop from the original image) was an experiment to see if the blue water and dark birds would stand out more than on a white border. I leave that assessment to you. Thank you again for your time to comment on the image. I have found your observations most helpful. -=D=-

I do think Dick this was on our trip to the loons and you did not use flash. Call me Dick please.

The blue and black ripples give such a full effect to the water.  The mother seems to draw the

most attention, which may be the way you wanted, but, the baby is almost lost to all her attention.

Might want to insert a thin white line in the border?  The mother really is magnificant, you know!